5:21pm

Business and the Economy

Less Building, More Training in Airport's Future

As the Bluegrass Airport makes plans for the future, they’re not thinking about construction. Instead, they see themselves as possibly enhancing their training program. Partly in preparation for the World Equestrian Games, the Lexington airport underwent a 66 million dollar improvement program. It included the construction of a new general aviation runway and a renovated airport terminal. As they write up new plans for the airport, executive director Eric Frankl says further expansion is not in the cards.

“We realize we’re gonna live in the confines that we have. We’re kind of land-locked, so really we’re gonna be updating our current master plan to reflect what actually is there now after all the changes over the last couple of years,” said Frankl.

Frankl and airport board chair Richard Hopgood appeared before the urban county council. Hopgood says there’s some private interest in the airport’s training program.

“We have a state of the art fire training facility that is of interest to some private industry to co-use along with us for people that make buses and equipment that needs to be tested for fire safety

Airport officials say some 35 hundred jobs are tied to the facility and its economic impact on the community amounts to 370 million dollars a year.